July 6 (Bloomberg) -- NBC Universal and buyout firms Bain Capital LLC and Blackstone Group LP agreed to buy the Weather Channel, after Landmark Communications Inc. put the cable network up for sale earlier this year.

The purchase price was about $3.5 billion, according to a person who asked not to be identified because the terms weren't made public. The channel will be based in Atlanta and management will be provided by NBC Universal, the companies said in a statement.

NBC, owned by General Electric Co., adds a cable network that reaches 96 million households and can bolster the company's own NBC Weather Plus channel and Web site. Landmark's Weather.com drew 36.4 million U.S. viewers in May, according to Reston, Virginia-based researcher ComScore Inc., making it the 15th most-popular Internet property. NBC sites, excluding iVillage.com, didn't rank in the top 50.